The Return of the Lady
by MerlinianTardis
Summary: It's the 21st century and Merlin is waiting for his once and future king. On the way he meets a person he never expected to meet in an unexpected way…


It was dark when he left the library, and raining too. Merlin sighed. He had stayed longer than intended at the library, which his stomach wasn't slow to remind him of. He held his bag over his head as an attempt to protect himself from the rain; it was really pouring down, and he hurried down the pavement. Even though it was raining it was crowded with people getting out of work and cars speeding past him, throwing water all over him when driving through puddles. He sighed again and lowered the bag; it wasn't any use as a protection anymore. Looking around, his eyes caught the sight of a little diner in the corner of the street. He had passed it several times but never eaten there, he never really knew why, because it looked cosy from the outside. But now it was raining and he wanted to get out of it as soon as possible, and he was hungry.

The diner was pretty tiny and dark. A little doorbell rang to witness his presence. Music on low volume was playing from a radio. The only costumers were an old man sat in the corner reading the newspaper and drinking beer and a couple of youths who looked to be in a deep, vivid discussion about something. Merlin took the first booth by a window and sat down. Immediately he opened his bag and took out some papers. He worked as a substitute teacher, mainly in History, and he also helped those students who, for some reasons had fallen behind. This evening he had been helping a kid who had fallen behind a bit in her studies, that's why he had been at the library, and now he had some essays to correct; he had taken care of a class the whole last week and this week as well andsince their teacher had been sick and would be gone for a some weeks.

He quickly skimmed through the menu the waitress gave him.

"I'll have a hamburger with fries and a coke, please," he said, glancing quickly up at her as he retrieved the menu to her, but without really seeing her. She seemed to be as uninterested in him. She returned a few minutes later, slightly bored, and annoyed; having to serve a costumer at this late an hour and Merlin could hear the faint sound from a TV from the back room. Some soap opera he assumed by the sound of it.

"Here's your food," the waitress said still in a bored voice and rather unceremoniously she placed the plate and drink on the table. Merlin quickly glanced up at the girl, and smiled a 'thank you' before returning to correcting the papers. He'd expected the girl to hurry back to her TV but she remained by his table. "Merlin?" she suddenly said and threw herself down at the seat opposite his.

"Yeah?" he glanced up at her again for a second, the boredom had vanished from her face, "how'd you…" his voice died away. The girl remembered him from somewhere. Someone he held very dear. He looked up again, closer this time. The girl smiled back at him. How he had longed to see that smile again.

"Freya!" He almost choked on his own voice and by the emotions that overwhelmed him, filling his eyes with tears. This life seems to have treated her better than the previous one. She looked healthy and happy, her calm and friendly brown eyes twinkled it excitement. Her brown hair hung loose around her shoulders.

"My Merlin, I've found you," she said.

Merlin found himself speechless. He often imagined how it would be meeting his friends from Camelot, where they would meet, what they would talk about and such things. But now, when he actually had Freya in front of him, he literally didn't know what to say or do with himself, other than smile stupidly, emotions bubbling like boiling water inside of him.

Fortunately, Freya didn't seem to have that problem and after a while his tongue loosened too. They talked about what was going on in their life at the moment. She told him she wanted to become a baker since she loved to bake, and only worked at this diner so she could afford to study at a chef school, and admitted she hated her work. "I usually work really early or really late hours, along with the studies and people can just be so ungrateful sometimes. We are usually two waitresses, but Nilah is never here and I have always have to cover up for her, and people have the guts to complain over bad service and unfriendly employees, or they don't even seem a little sorry for coming in so close into closing time."

Merlin smiled sheepishly and mumbled an incoherent apology down to his hamburger.

She showed great interest in his work and wanted to know what is was like working with kids.

"It's a bit fun actually. I'm substituting for this class of eighth graders now and we get along really well and they actually told their headmaster they wanted to have me as their real teacher. I don't know what their actual teacher thinks about that, but she's retiring soon anyway and the headmaster has already granted me her position when she leaves." And that would mean he would become a full time history teacher and not just some kind of substitute teacher.

He consciously avoided certain subjects involving Camelot, in case the old man or the kids eavesdropped at them, even though he could easily use magic to prevent that from happening. So he didn't tell her that he had never died, that he was immortal but instead they talked about stuff that any kind of old friends would normally talk about. She told a little about her childhood. Her family had died when she was younger and she had lived at different foster homes, but never settled with anyone, and when she was 17 she had moved in with a couple of friends to start a new life. She had lived the teenage life he used to look on with envy. He had seen too much to really find enjoyment in those kinds of things, but he'd really wanted to have had a life like that.

The old man and the teens left, so they were now all alone. "You want coffee?" Freya asked. Merlin had long since finished his burger and wouldn't mind some coffee on top of it, so Freya went to make them some. While the coffee brewed she tidied up the counter and placed everything in order, which wasn't much really. "There's some pie left too!" she shouted while moving from the counter to place the chairs on the tables to easier swipe the floor later.

"Pie sounds great!" he shouted back. "You want any help?"

"No thank you, I'mfinished soonanyway," He watched as she quickly placed the chairs on the tables. "You know, there's quicker ways to get that done," he smiled and with a snap with his fingers, the remaining chairs rose by themselves and placed themselves upside down on the tables.

"Hey I'm trying to do my job here, and what if someone saw you?"

"But no one did."

She shook her head and went behind the counter again to return with two cups of coffee and two plaits of pies with wiped cream. "It's pear-flavoured. We have others too, but pear is the tastiest one. It's really delicious," she smiled.

She wasn't lying. The pie did indeed taste splendid, which he also said. "Who made this?" he asked.

Freya started to blush a little and looked down at her plate. "Me, actually,"

"Really? It really is delicious,"

She smiled shyly, "Thanks,"

They sat quiet for a while, sometimes their eyes would meet and they would smile at each other. It wasn't really an awkward silence, in fact, Merlin kind of enjoyed it. Just watching her was more than enough for him. When finally meeting someone after such a long wait, words were less important than he had thought, and even less when the person was the one the least you expected to meet. Freya was the lady of the lake, but maybe, a tiny hope suddenly lightened inside of him. Maybe her return meant that Arthur was coming back too, that this was a sign for the return of the once and future king. But for what reason would he return now? The world wasn't in need of him at the moment and he hadn't returned when it needed him before. He wanted to ask Freya but he didn't know how and he wasn't really sure how to explain his immortality thing, not yet.

An old man, around his sixties interrupted his thoughts. He came out from the kitchen, so probably he was the cook. "Bye doll, see you tomorrow," he said and peered curiously at them with bright blue-grey eyes.

"Bye Archie!" Freya shouted after him and the old man waved and went out through the door. "Maybe we should go too? It's already passed closing time so…"

"Yeah,"

"Right, wait here, I'll just dump this in the kitchen and fetch my stuff, then I'm ready to go,"

While he waited Merlin packed down his stuff and then, half without conscious, he took a napkin and started to fold it, without really thinking of what he wanted to do, but it turned out to be a little dragon, his class was quiet amazed by his skills in origami. He blew carefully at the little paper dragon, golden glitter appeared around it and it was suddenly, as it were alive, it started to fly around in the room, still surrounded in golden sparkles.

"Cute," Freya said. Merlin turned around, and lost his attention on the little paper dragon and it exploded in a little puff and small sparkles slowly fell down to the floor. She had gathered her hair in a loose knot at the neck and without the green apron she had had when she'd been working, he could now see she was wearing a light beige blouse and skinny black jeans, and a worn-out brown leather jacket. On her feet she wore navy blue converse.

"Shall we go?"

They left the little diner and Freya locked the door behind them. "I'm going this way," she said and pointed. "The bus stops a couple of hundred metres over there."

Merlin was going the same way, or at least half of the way. He was turning right in the crossroad. Crouched under her umbrella and arms crooked, they left the little roof that was above the door of the diner. If it had been raining a lot earlier, it was nothing compared to the pouring now. When reaching the crossroad, they stopped, hesitating. None of them really felt ready to say good-bye so soon.

"Uhm… I have to go so I don't miss the bus…" Freya said reluctantly. She laid a hand on his shoulder and kissed him softly at the cheek. "Bye then…Merlin. Stop by any time soon." She smiled.

"Of course,"

Hesitantly she started to go away, but Merlin grabbed her arm and dragged her back to him and embraced her. Surprised she looked up at him, her umbrella dropped to the ground, and within seconds both of them were soaked. His hand cupped his hands around her head and his lips met hers, warm and tasting of pear pie, coffee and strawberry lip gloss. He smiled at the inside at the old, but a never fading memory that popped up in his head; Freya had wanted strawberries, and partly to impress at her, he had made an attempt to conjure them, but instead of strawberries he had gotten red flowers and she had laughed at it, saying it wasn't strawberries and he had defended himself with saying that at least the colours had been right.

She answered the kiss and her fingers searched through his wet hair, pressing him tighter against herself. Their tongues met; the world around them forgotten, the sound of the cars had faded away and he didn't feel the rain on his face. He was all consumed by the kiss, making his whole body warm and tingling. His mind still hadn't come to the fact that she was actually back, back here with him. But one thing he knew; he wasn't going to let go of her again, not this time. He was going to fight whatever it took to keep her with him.

He had no idea how long they stood there, but a cascade of dirty water being thrown at them from a passing truck brought them back to reality. Still in each other's arms they looked at the other. Freya's hair laid flat against her head and mascara was smudged on her cheeks. She was smiling, and in Merlin's eyes the most beautiful person he'd ever seen.

Another vehicle passed them. At first they didn't paid it any attention but then Freya shouted, "Wait, that's my bus!" Freya started running after it, waving like a maniac, they weren't really far from the bus stop anymore, but the bus driver drove past it, either didn't he see Freya in the wing mirror, or he ignored her.

"Come on!" she shouted after it as it disappeared down the road.

"When does the next bus go?" Merlin asked when he caught up with her.

"Don't know… let's see," she stroke drag her finger over the time table inside the bus shed. "What time is it now?"

"Uhm…" he looked at his watch, "22.47…"

"Oh you got to be kidding me!"

"What?"

"That was the last bus! It's usually that one I take but I usually never stay longer than necessary at work so I always manage to catch it." She sighed and hit with her fist at the wall of the shed before sinking down at the bench. "The buses doesn't start going again until around 6 tomorrow."

"You live far away?"

"Maybe 40 minutes with the bus,"

"Well… you could stay the night at my place, I have an apartment not that far away… if you want?" he said, feeling all sudden slightly awkward.

"Really?" she looked up at him, "if it's okay with you…"

"Of course it is!" he assured her, "I'm kind of the guilty one for making you missed the bus so… but it's totally okay if you don't want to… I would understand,"

"You silly, I would love that!"

He smiled and reached for her hand. She took it and hand in hand they left the protecting shed and slowly walked through the rain; they weren'tin a hurry and they couldn't be any wetter than they already were, and besides, rain had never hurt anyone.

It took them about 30 minutes to walk to Merlin's flat.

"Sorry about the mess," he apologised as he closed the door behind them. The flat was not very big, just a little two-roomer; bedroom, living room, bathroom, and a kitchenette, and it was filled with all kind of different stuff Merlin had gathered throughout the ages.

"I'll get you some dry clothes," he said. He quickly fetched her a t-shirt and some sweatpants and a dry towel. "Bathroom's over there," he pointed, "I'll go make some tea," She thanked him and disappeared into the bathroom.

He too found something dry to wear himself before preparing the tea. While waiting for the water to start boil he washedup two cups; there weren't any clean ones in the cabinets. He really needed to clean up in here, he thought. The whole place was a big mess. From behind he heard Freya coming out from the bathroom and moving around the living room.

"I'll be right there," he shouted out to her. "You want anything in your tea?"

"Just milk, please!" she shouted back. From where he was, he had a good view over the living room. He saw Freya curiously inspect all of his weird things. Rightnowshe was fingering on a modelof a wooden air balloon. From there she went to the window where a single dead flower stood. "You don't water your plants?" she teased.

"It happens," he said over his shoulder as he dropped a bag of tea in each cup, strawberry flavoured, of course, "Gaius said it was impossible to kill," and poured the hot water in the cups.

"And how long did it take before it died?"

"A few days, he was quiet amazed over it."

Sensing more than hearing her coming, Freya entered the little kitchenette. Her hand came up his back and she leaned against his side. "Tea smells good," she said.

"Milk is in the fridge,"

The hand disappeared from his back. "Well that's awfully lots of food you got there," she commented.

"I haven't got time to buy groceries, besides I eat at school and with Gaius when working there late evenings."

"Gaius, that was Camelot's physician right? And the one that gave you the flower?"

"Yeah, right now he owns a little pharmacy, a quite odd one, and I use to help him there whenever I can."

"I see… have you found anyone else from Camelot?"

"Why? Gaius and Lancelot."

"Oh…"

"What?"

"Nothing…" she concentrated on pouring up the milk in the cups, and placed the empty carton on the sink.

"That sound wasn't a 'nothing' sound," he commented, his eyes narrowed.

"I just thought there would be more people from Camelot here… now that I'm back,"

"Yeah… how come you did come back? I mean…" he hesitated, "Why now? And you are the lady of the lake, who's watching over Avalon…" to be frank, Freya had been the person he had least expected to ever return, because of who she was, the lady of the lake.

"I don't know, I really don't know, but I do know the lake will do fine without me, or so it did before I came. Last time in Avalon was a bit of a blur and then it was kind of black for a while, but I remember Arthur was still there, although a lot could have happened when I was blacking because I'm not complete sure how long it lasted. I'm not that sure what happened really. One second I was there. Then it was black, and next I woke up by the lake, here and not in Avalon… I know, I lied at the diner, "she said when Merlin tilted his head and opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, "But I didn't want to take the risk of somebody eavesdropping at us… also I wasn't sure on how to tell it… There must be a reason to why I was sent back here. But I haven't seen any signs of it yet. If there had been any, I would have seen it. But I haven't…"

She followed him out in the living room and made themselves comfortable in the sofa. She snugged up close to him and he put his arm around her shoulders.

"He will come back," she said comfortingly and stroke his arm.

"But when?" he looked helplessly at her, "Do you know how many times the world was in need of him… What of those times I needed him? I was so alone Freya. I felt so lost, so empty without him… I… I had to watch everyone I loved die. In the beginning I couldn't start a family or get to close with people because I was scared to lose them. But after seeing so much… I learned to appreciate what was there, before it disappeared. But nothing could fill the emptiness I felt… I just wanted to have him back and the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge was that he someday would return, but there was time's I didn't knew how much longer I could wait,"

This time it was Freya who looked helpless, "I know, but I'm not the one who decides who come and goes, even though I wanted to kick him out several times. Seriously, how did you manage to put up with him?"

"He had his times… really he had," he smiled

"I know," she said. "You know… he worried about you, about how you were going to make it without him. You meant a lot to him. I think more than you'll ever realise."

"Did he really say that?" Merlin doubtfully raised his eyebrows.

"Not directly, but it was obvious enough, well he only said he was worried, but he never saw you and even if he wanted he couldn't and I never spoke of the times you visited the lake."

Merlin nodded understanding. "Did you talk much?"

"Not much at all. But I often heard him and the other knights talking and the Sidhes caught up a lot too. From time to time I found him standing by the shore, glancing over the lake. But he couldn't see into this world like I could, and I knew he was waiting for you,"

"Is he going to remember anything from his time in Avalon?"

"I don't really know, but I don't think so, no,"

Merlin nodded and sipped on his tea, silently envying Freya for being so close to Arthur, and also that Arthur wouldn't even remember the long wait.

"But you don't have to be alone now. He's coming back, and you will find each other. I don't know when, but eventually you will, and I'll be here waiting with you," she smiled up at him.

"Yeah, I'd like that," he smiled back. He hugged her tightly and leaned his head against hers. They sat there in each other arms, without saying anything, just enjoying the presence from the other. Merlin sighed and closed his eyes; hoping that Freya had right, that Arthur actually was coming back and a feeling of warmth and calmness filled his body. Freya had fallen asleep and her slow deep breath cradled him too into sleep.

* * *

**A/N: So this was something I wrote earlier this year. ****I want to continue writing on this story. But I don't know if I only want to do shorter stories (I have some short stuff written already) or write one long story (which was the idea from the beginning). I do have a Merthur reunion fic finished that I'm going to publish in a couple of days (hopefully). After that I have to see what I'm going to do. If it's the latter i won't publish it in a long while because I'm currently writing on another long Merlin fic (which I'm going to start publishing when/if it's finished)  
**


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